Russian law enforcement authorities have arrested one current and one former deputy energy minister on suspicion of fraud, the Kommersant business dailyreported Thursday, citing anonymous sources.Federal Security Service (FSB) agentsreportedly first arrested Anatoly Yanovsky, who oversaw policy on Russias coal industry as deputy energy minister between 2008 and 2021.Current Deputy Energy Minister Sergei Mochalnikov was later arrested alongside three other unidentified people as part of an investigation into Yanovsky, Kommersant reported.Mochalnikov was promoted to deputy minister in April 2022 after he had headed the ministrys coal industry department starting in 2014.Yanovsky and Mochalnikov areexpected to be charged with large-scale embezzlement and abuse of power, according to the Interfax news agency.
Kommersant said the charges could be pressed as soon as Friday.According to sources cited by Kommersant, several companies received billions of rubles in government contracts, including for the closure of an unprofitable mine in the Perm region.
However, some of the work was never completed, prompting authorities to launch an investigation this summer.Yanovsky was detained after other coal industry figures were arrested last year and testified against him, the RBC news websitereported, citing an anonymous law enforcement source.According to Kommersant, direct damages in Mochalnikovs case totaled 500 million rubles ($5.16 million) and indirect damages 12 billion rubles ($123.84 million).Mochalnikov is reportedly cooperating with the authorities, who will petition the court to place him under house arrest instead of pre-trial detention.